Currently, broadcasted multimedia content is treated in the same manner throughout the broadcast. Thus, no section of the content is any different or more important than any other section. Multimedia content often includes mandatory segments that someone, such as the content owner or an advertiser, wishes to be presented to the user. Thus, while the mandatory segments must be presented to a user, a user can selectively access any other part of the multimedia content. For example, a content owner typically employs a mandatory Digital Versatile Disk (or “Digital Video Disk”) introduction, in which a copyright notice is usually displayed.
Likewise, there is a tendency among advertisers to introduce mandatory segments of content (e.g., commercials) that the user will not be able to skip while playing the content. For instance, some movies contain commercials for a particular product directly in the movies. Implementing these mandatory segments may be too annoying and disruptive for the users and may have the effect of completely diverting the user from such programs.
A need therefore exists for techniques that allow mandatory sections of multimedia content, yet also provide flexibility.